1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to signal interconnections between integrated circuit chips, and more particularly to free-space optical interconnections of integrated circuits in multi-chip modules
2. Description of the Prior Art
Modules incorporating multiple chips require interconnects or communication paths between electronic elements. Optoelectronic interconnects are a solution to the impedance mismatching and bottleneck problems of physical wiring. Optoelectronic interconnects that consist of lasers and photo-receivers, convert electrons to photons and then photons back to electrons to establish the interconnections. Optical beams do not strongly interact with each other and their power and bandwidth requirements do not depend strongly on distance, as do physical wires.
Many architectures of optoelectronic interconnects have been proposed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,546,209 uses wavelength-division-multiplexing to simultaneously communicate from one plane to many planes. Several multiple wavelength VCSELs transmit and each succeeding detecting plane absorbs one wavelength and is transparent to the rest. U.S. Pat. No. 5,513,021 uses holographic optical elements in an interconnect architecture to preserve the alignment of large dimension optical substrates. Each holographic optical element must be individually aligned with a respective photonic device.
Free-space optical interconnects frequently have used light sources and receivers all of which operate at a single wavelength of light. They have typically been configured so that the output beam from a light transmitter is well enough collimated that it only falls on one receiver with sufficient intensity for the signal to be received, as is shown in FIG. 1. If a transmitter and its intended receiver are misaligned by more than the half-width of the laser beam at the plane of the receiver, the data are not received. Furthermore, the half-width of the laser beam can not exceed the separation of the receivers. Therefore, the separation between optical transmitters must be greater than a certain distance, which is determined by the expected misalignment between the transmitter and receiver planes. The density of the interconnects is likewise limited.
The present invention is a free-space optical interconnect architecture that is tolerant of the lateral misalignment of integrated circuit boards in multi-chip module packages. A plurality of transmitters (lasers), each operating at a different wavelength, transmits to a plurality of receivers (detectors) designed to receive only its intended transmission. The transmitted beams are spread such that the beams"" half angles are slightly greater than the maximum expected misalignment. The detectors can be closely spaced.